Post Magazine

April 2013

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 3 of 59

editor's note
Game plan: NAB
A
s part of my training for NAB 2013, I've
deprived myself of water and lip balm for
long periods of time, been eating breath
mints for lunch and dinner, and have been hitting
my heels with a hammer. How prepared are you?
By
RANDI
ALTMAN
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
raltman@postmagazine.com
P O S T
Some pros making the trip out to Las Vegas this
year have their game plans and expectations in order.
"While I believe NAB 2013 is going to be all
about 4K, I don't expect to see any reasonable solutions of working with it yet," says Terry Curren,
owner of Burbank's AlphaDogs. "Handling that
amount of data and bandwidth is going to require
hefty new codecs. And, of course, professional-level
monitoring — that doesn't require selling your
house to purchase — will also have to come out. So
I would expect those things to arrive next year at
the earliest."
What Curren really enjoys about his trips to NAB
are the new things you might find in the booths in
the back of the halls. "These are the newer companies that get consigned to the 'North Forty.' And they
are also the companies that introduce surprising new
things that come from 'outside of the box' thinking.
And, of course, there is always the question of
whether Blackmagic will pull off something totally
surprising like the Cinema Camera of NAB 2012."
Goldcrest New York's Katie Hinsen, who is at the
show blogging for Post Magazine, is most interested
in what's new and developing in post in terms of gear
and technology trends. "I'm always excited about the
various panels on 3D, HFR, display technology and
emerging standards. These shows are a great way to
find out what's going to happen soon, and get us to
start thinking about better ways to integrate and
adapt workflows."
Another pro who will be blogging from the show
floor for Post is Digital Factory Inc.'s president,TJ Ryan,
who based in Los Angeles. "My main focus will be
with the South Hall. I will be looking at monitors,
projectors, Avid, Blackmagic, AJA and storage. I will be
looking at new technology with Thunderbolt and
expansion chassis. Any new drives and storage that
catches my eye... I will also be looking at realtime
streaming over Internet. And, finally, I will focus on the
new solutions for DAM and MAM."
Post Magazine is doing its part to help those of
you who aren't at the show keep updated on what's
new and newsworthy. In addition to our daily
e-newsletters, blogs from industry pros, and booth
videos, we are streaming live from the Post booth
each day, talking to manufacturers and users about
what's new, the industry and trends.
We will be Tweeting as well. You can follow us on
@post_magazine.
S C R I P T
By
MARC
LOFTUS
SENIOR EDITOR
mloftus@postmagazine.com
2
attended the GPU Technology Conference
(GTC) in San Jose in March, which promotes
awareness of the value of GPU computing. The
conference/exhibition had a heavy focus on
research and education, with hundreds of panels,
papers and tutorials, but also featured a media
and entertainment path that applied to post.
The show (www.gputechconf.com) is presented in large part by Nvidia, and the company's CEO/co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang was
the opening keynote, reflecting on advancements in Nvidia technology and how it's helping pros in the VFX community create more
realistic animated oceans, via its Wave Works
realtime ocean simulator, as well as more
believable faces for animated characters, thanks
to its Face Works technology.
Huang also used GTC as an opportunity to
introduce GRID VCA, the company's first endto-end system, which he described as the
"world's first visual computing appliance."
The 4RU solution features two high-performance Xeon processors and eight Grid GPUs,
each with two Kepler GPUs, to create a
Post • April 2013
Post0413_002-editMLV2finalread.indd 2
RANDI ALTMAN
Editor-in-Chief
(516) 797-0884
raltman@postmagazine.com
MARC LOFTUS
Senior Editor/Director of Web Content
(516) 376-1087
mloftus@postmagazine.com
CHRISTINE BUNISH
Film& Video
JENNIFER WALDEN
Audio
BOB PANK
European Correspondent
bob.pank@virgin.net
DANIEL RESTUCCIO
West Coast Bureau
dansweb451@aol.com
BARRY GOCH
West Coast Blogger/Reporter
IAIN BLAIR
Film
MICHAEL VIGGIANO
Art Director
mviggiano@postmagazine.com
A DV E RT I S I N G
MARI KOHN
Director of Sales
(818) 291-1153 cell: (818) 472-1491
mkohn@postmagazine.com
GARY RHODES
Eastern & Intl Sales Manager
(631) 274-9530 cell (516)410-8638
grhodes@copcomm.com
LISA BLACK
Corporate Sales Executive, Events,
Custom and Integrated Print/Publishing
Services
lblack@copcomm.com
(818) 660-5828
SUBSCRIPTIONS
(818) 291-1158
The GPU Technology Conference
I
EDITORIAL
remote workspace that can concurrently run
up to eight applications and serve eight users.
Base price is $24,900. A 16-GPU/16-user version ($39,900) was also in beta testing. And for
the cost of a $4,800/year software license, studios can give their team of artists remote
access to all of their tools, regardless of the
computer they access them from.
Huang showed how artists could access PC
apps like 3DS Max or SolidWorks from a Mac
laptop, all the while experiencing GPU-accelerated performance. When not maxed out by the
eight or 16 simultaneous users, the GPUs
could be combined to considerably increase
performance for lower numbers of users. In
time, Nvidia says it will also be able to split
GPU performance to accommodate more than
the current "1 user to 1 GPU" configuration.
Huang says computer graphics are still in their
early days, and that new ground is being broken
all the time. GPU performance has been doubling every two years, but he says with Nvidia's
current and upcoming technology, those rates
could see 100x in the next five years.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
620 West Elk Ave, Glendale, CA 91204
csr@postmagazine.com
(800) 280 6446
MIKE TABIZON
Account Manager
(818) 291-1180
mtabizon@copprints.com
REPRINTS
Reprints
(781) 255-0625 • (818) 291-1153
LA SALES OFFICE:
620 West Elk Avenue,
Glendale, California 91204
(800) 280-6446
WILLIAM R. RITTWAGE
President / CEO
SEE US ON
Post Magazine is published by Post, LLC, a COP communications company.
Post does not verify any claims or other information appearing in any of the
advertisements contained in the publication, and cannot take any responsibility for
any losses or other damages incurred by readers in reliance on such content.
Post cannot be held responsible for the safekeeping or return of unsolicited
articles, manuscripts, photographs, illustrations or other materials.
Subscriptions: Address all subscription correspondence to Post Magazine, 620
West Elk Ave, Glendale, CA 91204. Subscribers may also contact customer service
at 818-291-1158, or send an email to csr@postmagazine.com For change of
address please include the old and new address information, and if possible,
include an address label from a recent issue. Subscriptions are available free to
qualified individuals within the United States. Non-qualified 1 year rates: USA
$63.00. Canada & Mexico $94.00. All Other Countries $133.00. Airmail Delivery
is available for an additional $75.00 annually.
Postmaster: Send address changes to Post Magazine, P.O. Box 3551, Northbrook,
IL 60065-3551. Please send customer service inquiries to 620 W. Elk Ave., Glendale, CA 91204
www.postmagazine.com
3/27/13 4:12 PM